The present invention relates generally to plastic fasteners and more particularly to a plastic fastener which is especially useful in tagging meat but which is also useful in many other applications where a fastener is either desired or required.
Plastic fasteners are well known and widely used in a variety of applications. One such application is tagging meat. Fasteners constructed for this purpose generally are of the type comprising an elongated plastic member having a thin filament, circular in cross-section, a transverse bar at one end of the filament and a paddle at the other end of the filament. The transverse bar is connected to the filament in a T shaped configuration with the portions of the transverse bar on each side of the filament being equal in length. The transverse bar typically has a length of about 0.40 inches or greater and a cross sectional diameter of about 0.045 inch. Usually, such fasteners are massproduced by a molding process in either one of two different forms known as fastener stock. One type of fastener stock, which is shown in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,103,666 and incorporated hereunto by reference, comprises a plurality of fasteners joined together at their respective transverse bars by an orthogonally disposed runner bar. The other type of fastener stock, which is shown in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,475 and incorporated hereunto by reference, comprises a plurality of fasteners arranged in an end-to-end alignment, the heads and opposite ends of successive fasteners being joined together by severable connectors so as to form a continuously connected fastener stock.
Typically, the transverse bar portion of a single fastener is separated from a quantity of fastener stock and then inserted into the meat being tagged with a hand-held apparatus commonly referred to as a tagging gun. Connections, if any, between the paddles of a pair of adjacent fasteners are severed by pulling the tagging gun away from the item after the transverse bar of one of the fasteners has been inserted thereunto. Examples of tagging guns are illustrated in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,024,365, 4,121,487, and 4,456,161, all of which are incorporated hereunto by reference, as well as the above noted U.S. Pat. No. 3,103,666.
When being used to tag meat, after the fastener is inserted in the meat and the meat has been inspected and/or further processed, the fastener is usually pulled back out and discarded.
It has been found that in some instances, especially when the meat has been chilled and the fastener has been inserted, when a person attempts to pull the fastener back out it will break at the junction of the transverse bar and the filament leaving the transverse bar embedded in the meat. The severed transverse bar must then be removed, either by hand or with an appropriate tool. This, of course, is time consuming, difficult, and costly.